Nominees for the 7th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards were announced this morning with Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love leading the pack with a showing in seven categories. Ryan White’s crowd-pleasing and tear-jerking Mars Rover film Good Night Oppy is close behind with six nominations. Both are competing in all the same categories save for Fire of Love’s extra nod in the Best Archival Documentary race.
For the first time in four years, the Best Limited Documentary Series and Best Ongoing Documentary Series are back at the Critics Choice Association‘s doc awards after moving to the Real TV Awards in 2019. Also this year, series and short films were eligible for all craft and genre categories, allowing for such titles as the three-part The Beatles: Get Back and the 14-minute Nuisance Bear to break out with multiple nominations.
There were some snubs, as can be expected with such a growing field of quality nonfiction works. Ondi Timoner’s Last Flight Home, which we reviewed from Sundance, is one of the most powerful films of the year, yet it’s also surely one of the hardest to evaluate in terms of award worthiness. Another of my favorites from Sundance 2022, All That Breathes, did receive a few nominations, but its absence from the Best Documentary Feature race is surprising.
In complete transparency, I have to mention that I am one of the co-presidents of the Critics Choice Association’s Documentary Branch and an executive producer of our awards ceremony, meaning that I not only participate in but help to lead a committee deciding the nominees. Here is my official quote about the 2022 contenders:
“This year’s nominees prove that documentaries of all lengths and formats are advancing nonfiction media like never before, and we are excited to celebrate the tremendous talents who contributed to all of these brilliant films and series.”
Without further ado, below is a list of all the nominees for the 2022 Critics Choice Documentary Awards, the winners of which will be presented at the Edison Ballroom in New York City on November 13.
Nominations For The Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Aftershock
The Automat
Descendant
Fire of Love
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down
Good Night Oppy
The Janes
Moonage Daydream
Navalny
Sidney
BEST DIRECTOR
Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio – George Carlin’s American Dream
Margaret Brown – Descendant
Sara Dosa – Fire of Love
Reginald Hudlin – Sidney
Brett Morgen – Moonage Daydream
Laura Poitras – All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Daniel Roher – Navalny
Ryan White – Good Night Oppy
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Andrea Arnold – Cow
Lisa Hurwitz – The Automat
Jono McLeod – My Old School
Amy Poehler – Lucy and Desi
Alex Pritz – The Territory
David Siev – Bad Axe
Bianca Stigter – Three Minutes: A Lengthening
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Benjamin Bernhard, Riju Das – All That Breathes
Magda Kowalczyk – Cow
Lucas Tucknott – McEnroe
Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Sam Holling – Nuisance Bear
The Cinematography Team – Our Great National Parks
Alex Pritz, Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau – The Territory
BEST EDITING
Jabez Olssen – The Beatles: Get Back
Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput – Fire of Love
Joe Beshenkovsky – George Carlin’s American Dream
Helen Kearns, Rejh Cabrera – Good Night Oppy
Brett Morgen – Moonage Daydream
Langdon Page, Maya Daisy Hawke – Navalny
Katharina Wartena – Three Minutes: A Lengthening
BEST SCORE
Hummie Mann – The Automat
Nicolas Godin – Fire of Love
Blake Neely – Good Night Oppy
Max Avery Lichtenstein – The Janes
David Schwartz – Lucy and Desi
Marius de Vries, Anna Drubich, Matt Robertson – Navalny
BEST NARRATION
Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story
Written by Ben Masters
Performed by Matthew McConaughey
Fire of Love
Written by Shane Boris, Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput, Sara Dosa
Performed by Miranda July
Good Night Oppy
Written by Helen Kearns, Ryan White
Performed by Angela Bassett
Our Great National Parks
Performed by Barack Obama
Riotsville, U.S.A.
Written by Tobi Haslett
Performed by Charlene Modeste
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
Written by Bianca Stigter
Performed by Helena Bonham Carter
BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY
The Beatles: Get Back
Fire of Love
Moonage Daydream
Nothing Compares
Riotsville, U.S.A.
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
The Automat
Descendant
The Janes
Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
Still Working 9 to 5
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
The U.S. and the Holocaust
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY
George Carlin’s American Dream
The Last Movie Stars
Lucy and Desi
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams
Sidney
Sr.
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
The Beatles: Get Back
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song
If These Walls Could Sing
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
Moonage Daydream
Nothing Compares
The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile
BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
Aftershock
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down
The Janes
Navalny
Retrograde
Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom
BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY
All That Breathes
Cow
Fire of Love
Good Night Oppy
Nuisance Bear
Return to Space
The Territory
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
Citizen Ashe
Hockeyland
Kaepernick & America
McEnroe
The Redeem Team
Welcome to Wrexham
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
38 at the Garden
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison
The Flagmakers
Four Seasons Total Documentary
My Disability Roadmap
Nuisance Bear
Stranger at the Gate
BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES
The Beatles: Get Back
Hostages
The Last Movie Stars
The Lincoln Project
Our Great National Parks
The U.S. and the Holocaust
We Need to Talk About Cosby
BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES
30 for 30
American Masters
Cheer
The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth
Unsolved Mysteries
Welcome to Wrexham
